Pictures Part 3

The first picture I´m sending is of my fellow volunteer Gail playing guitar after the wedding we went to at our FBT site months ago. We are at our friend and trainer Terencio´s house. Gail was a PCV in Tanzania before she arrived to train with me in Honduras, so Ben knows some of her PCV friends from Tanzania. It´s a crazy world!

Next pictured is my PCV friend Matt and Terencio´s son. Whenever I have a question about Agrictulture, I first call Matt, and then I consult my books. He always has information (or at least he pretends to). He now lives pretty far away from me, so I don´t know when I´ll see him again.

This is a picture of me with my PCV friend Gabe on the day of our swearing in, in case you have forgotten what I look like. Gabe is from MN, so we have a good connection. He lives near me, so hopefully I will see more of him.

This next picture shows you the streets of my village! The picture is of María de la Luz, one of my new friends, and her husband and daughter. Note the cow in the background.

This picture is of Ete, and her adorable son Johnaton, who can now walk alone! Ete is one of Ana and Ada´s sisters (there are six of them and all of their names end in linda--Etelinda, Analinda, Adalinda, Olinda, Bettelinda, etc...). She lives in a house just across the feild, but she always comes over to visit with Johnaton.

The landscape is the beautiful veiw that I see when I walk over to Danilo´s house in the morning. I think this was taken one day last week when we left at seven in the morning to hike to a nearby aldea (2 hours there and back...it was a great workout!).

This is Oneyda, my counterpart´s wife. She is a good friend of mine--I frequently stop at her house just to see how she is. She is pictured with a new fogón (cooking stove) that she had just made that morning. (David, in case you´re interested...you mix clay with dry manure and ashes and fashion the clay around bricks. Leave a hole to put in the wood and a hole for the chimeney. Cover it with a peice of thin metal (I don´t know what kind). On that you can make tortillas or place your cooking pots!)

This is one of my counterparts´ family´s dogs. It looks like it just got a chicken! The dirt floor is typical for my community, as are the mud walls covered with a white paint they make by mixing a rock they find in the mountain with water. The plastic chairs are also typical--people sit on those or wooden benches.

This last week, I learned how to plant beans (and impressed all the men in my town), walked to two nearby towns (both two hours away) and made tortillas for my host family. Time is going quickly.

More pictures to come soon.

The new routine...

I think it´s a sign that I´m adjusting that events do not stand out in my mind as much as they did the first time I wrote to you from my site. My life is becoming more normal in Los Planes. What I am most happy about is the fact that even though my job is unclear and unstructured (get to know the community, think of projects) I am thriving. I guess, contrary to what I previously thought, I don´t need so much direction to be able to find things to do. I am actually rather good at self directed activities.

It seems that with each week that passes, a new window opens of things that I need to investigate. And that´s how I feel right now. I feel like a spy with an ongoing list of people to see and questions to ask (all over cups of coffee, surrepticiously slipped in after I´ve talked about the weather and the health of the kids). Last week, I started visiting houses of men and women in the community whom I had heard held leadership roles. These visits went really well--I have found that it is very interesting to me to hear about other people (I have to be careful about gossip!) and I really like to hear about these peoples´ lives. I have gotten to know many people in that way.

This week, I have become obsessed with agriculture improvement. There has been a tropical storm in the Carribean, so I have spend my time inside (the rain hasn´t stopped for three days) reading articles about improved farming techniques. From what I have read and already knew, I can see some very easy and important improved agricultural practices that could greatly help the yeild of produce in the area. As I have mentioned before, people here mainly grow beans, corn, and coffee (their coffee fincas are always intersperced with fruit trees--lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins, mangos, bananas). I have discovered that people don´t grow other veggies because the costs of the pesticides and fertilizers necessary to do so are too high to make the crop worth growing--the market selling prices end up being devastatingly low. From what I´ve read, it´s better to improve the techniques of the crops already grown than to introduce something new. So, although I´d like to start a women´s group to teach how to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, I´d like to work with them men in the community to teach them how to use barriers (live and dead) on their sloped land, cultivate leguminous green plants in between their corn to naturally fertilize the soil, and help them find alternatives to burning their crops in the feild after the harvest. I have become pretty fired up about these things, but the problem is that I have not yet visited many farms with the men in the village.

I really appreciate my counterpart´s wife, Oneyda. Whenever I am not sure what to do with myself, I go visit her. With her I make tortillas and listen to talk about the entire aldea, which always interests me. Oneyda loves flowers--she has about forty flowers growing in plastic bags outside of her house. They are propped up on wooden benches so that the chickens won´t get them. She harvests the seeds herself. Needless to say, she is very excited to start growing tomatoes with the women´s group!

I have found a house to rent! It is owned by a respectable man who I would like to get to know. He is the pastor at a church in the community that meets about four days a week. I can hear them singing late into the night. The house is a little place--it has a bedroom, a kitchen and a little sitting room. Right now it has a dirt floor, but Eulalio is an albañil, so he is going to put in a cement floor next month. There is a bathroom outside, and he will also make a pila outside (water cistern). The house is a little dark, but that is common for houses here--they usually only have one small window per room. But there is a big yard, and he is going to make a fence so that I can make my garden. I hope to start working on that in the begining of November. I am very excited, and in my spare time I dream about how I´m going to make a compost pile, and a place to bury my plastics and burn my papers and grow such delicious veggetables...I am sure such dreams don´t make sense to most of you (who dreams about garbage sorting?) but trash is such a problem here that I can´t wait to have one place that I can control. It will be clean.
And since this has been more general, I think I will let you know more specifically what I do with my days.

I usually wake up around six or six thirty, and stretch for a half an hour. My limbs tend to be sore here from all of the walking on steep terrain. I get up and shower and eat breakfast (oatmeal with raisins, honey and fruit--right now that means bananas and oranges) by about seven thrity. People here eat refried beans with tortillas for breakfast, but I have bought my own breakfast to avoid eating that plato tipico three times a day!
I wash my clothes from the previous day in the morning to avoid a pileup of dirty clothes (it is no fun to wash all at once). Recently it has been a problem because nothing dries in the rain. I am continuousy putting out my clothes or taking them in, depending on what the sky looks like. Usually I leave the house around eight. Many days I take a walk to the river. This means I have to walk through the town, greeting whomever I see and entering houses where I can. Occassionally a kid will see me and take me to their house (this has happened twice this week), and I always like that--it is a good excuse to get to know new people. Sometimes I get a second breakfast (it is hard to turn down food here in a polite way). I like to visit one or two houses before noon. I am usually done by eleven o´clock, at which time I return home to record what I have learned (about local farming, people, problems, concerns, or positives). I usually hang out, reading, playing guitar, or writing, until about one, at which time I eat lunch (refried beans, rice, tortilla. Maybe an egg, maybe pataste, a veggie like zuccinni). In the afternoon I like to visit one or two more houses, where they give me coffee and usually something else to eat (fresh oranges are popular right now--you could say they grow on trees they are so plentiful!).
Last week I played soccer with the high school students a couple times (great fun, and I don´t feel too bad at it because I am good at running, at least). I also like to walk again in the afternoon, up to a farm or the mountain or to the river again. I eat dinner around six, and spend the evening (from six to eight) reading and writing letters by candlelight. I listen to music for a while and then go to sleep around nine. I get lots of sleep here.

Well, this is a long one. But I´ve got to let you know what I´m doing!

Today I arrived in town at nine am. I have been using the internet (almost four hours!), visiting the post office and getting to know the city. I met Michelle, another PCV who lives here. I will be staying at her house tonight. At five I will be going to dinner with David, another PCV I have met, and his girlfriend (a Honduran) and Michelle. I am glad to speak English and see other PCVs today.

Tomorrow I´m going to a workshop on parlimentary procedure with a new coffee coop that has been formed in the aldea by an organization called CoHorsil. I´m still figuring out the goals of the organization. I´m going to support the leading group, to tryto help develop their leadership skills. That will be all day long, and then in the evening I will return to Los Planes.
I think that I will not return to town for another two weeks. So tentatively, lets say that I will be back here (and use the internet) on November 1st. I will bring photos next time.
I´ll talk to you soon!

Week 1 in Site

Hi Everyone!
I can´t believe it´s already the second week of October! Time passes quickly.
I´m sorry I couldn´t get an email out last week about my first week in site. Transportation is a little difficult for me right now. The PC doesn´t want me to spend nights away from site, but the bus is down right now. So the only way that I can go to Siguat is in Paila, or truckbed, and the Paila´s leave me only three hours to do my shopping and internet use in Siguat. Once a week. I think I´m going to find a way to stay the night next week (The PC allows me to on ´business´). That way I can have time to get to know the city and maybe chat with Ben online.
But to start with an update from last week...my life feels like an adventure recently. I just never know what is going to happen. I was really afraid for this transition from the busy schedule of training to the entirely new life and free time of a new volunteer. But really, it has been going well. Every night I think of a few things that I could do the following day. I try to carry it out, but inevitably, my day takes a crazy turn and I end up on some adventure. This started the moment that I arrived in Los Planes. On Sunday, the 28th, when I arrived, I went to see my counterpart. He wasn´t home, but his wife was making a torch (plastic wrapped around a wooden frame with a candle in the middle). She told me that there was going to be a parade for the Día de la Biblia. So I went to the school, where all of the children were assembling. They were all wearing colorful outfits. From there we paraded around the town, accompanied by drums. It was dark and it started to rain, but everyone came out of their houses to walk with the parade anyway. It was a great entry into life here!
The next day I wasn´t sure what to do with myself, but somehow I ran into some kids, my first friends here. I played soccer with them, and then we climbed the mountain in our backyard. Their names are Herly (who is 11 and very inquisitive and capable) and his sister Marleny (13, she would like to live with me!). With them I planned more hikes for the following day.
So on Tuesday I climbed the mountain again, and then in the afternoon I took a walk with Ana (one of the teachers from the school that I live with) and a bunch of her students. Last week I started to feel more comfortable with the teachers...they are very kind even though at first it was hard to get to know them. Now I have been spending more time with Ana. She is young, close to my age, and very daring, for a woman here, which is fun!
On Wednesday I wasn´t sure what I was going to do with myself, so I took a walk to the river. On my way back, I ran into three little boys. I asked where they were going, and they told me they were going to the mountain, to the milpa (corn patch), to pick corn (maize, rather). They invited me to go with, and were very surprised but excited when I readily assented. I asked how far away the patch was, and they told me allí en la montaña, no más. So suposedly it was very close, but I know enough of Hundurans to have a little doubt about right over there in the mountain. We walked for about an hour, climbing the mountain in a narrow path of mud. I stepped in mud up to my calf! But I had some quick 7, 10, and 12 year old´s to keep up with, so I hiked without complaining. I discovered that they boys´ names were William, ....(now I can´t remember...). They go to their father´s corn patch twice a week to pick corn, which they eat and sell. When I was able to look up to look at the veiw, it was astonishing; we walked right on the mountain, and I could look down into the steep river valley. We arrived at the milpa and started picking corn. Most of it was wormy and bad. I discovered that the family rents land--they clear cut and burn it, then plant corn, and then beans, and then move on to new land. Wow!
On our way home, we stopped at the river. There I waded into the water to wash my shoes and pants. It was quite a hike! In the afternoon, I hiked again with the kids from school, and this time I went with both teachers (Ana and Ada). I hiked for about six hours that day!
On Thursday, I got another example of my adventure of a life. I went to the school to observe, and when I arrived, the teachers told me that I was to go teach the sixth graders for half the morning, and the fifth graders for the other half. I taught English, which was great fun! I quickly made up activites that we could do to learn basic English vocabulary. I think I will go to the school every Thursday to teach English and other things. I am happy to be spending time with kids, because it is a great way to get introduced into families. The kids can report to their parents about me (and they have...).
On Saturday I went to pick Cacao with some boys from the school (Gabriel, Rene, and Rito Manuel). Cacao is a big yellow fruit that grows on trees: you pick it and break it open to suck on the seeds. The seeds, though, if you dry them out and then toast them, are what you make chocolate from...I have been trying to make chocolate but I have not been successful yet. I have two years! In the evening, I was invited to dance down the street. I went, but didn´t stay long, because there weren´t very many women there and it seemed like a bad idea to stay. I was right--I have found out since that I shouldn´t have gone at all. The whole town is talking about it! People keep asking me if I´m going to go again. I have discovered, though, that it is not really acceptable to dance just for fun...one needs to be celebrating a birthday party with friends for it to be okay. So I won´t do that again.
On Sunday I went to the Catholic church. They told me a service would start at ten (there is no priest, so there is no mass), but it actually didn´t get going until 10:30 (I should have known...). Religion here is something else...but the people are excited that I have religion (they say so in front of me) so I will keep going.
On Monday I worked on a vivero (tree nursery) with Danilo, my counterpart. The seventh graders came to help out. I decided that I don´t much like making vivero´s...I would much rather start a veggie garden. Speaking of that...I have met about three women who would like to start a women´s group to grow veggies..we could sell them to the rest of the village. I would like to start that project sometime soon!
Yesterday, I didn´t know what to do with myself again, so I took a walk around town (for me, that seems to always lead to something good). When I passed a local pulpería (local store), the owner invited me in for coffee. I stayed with her for about an hour. She offered me tamales, cheese and tortillas, sweets. I left with vegetables, plantains, and sweets. People here are so hospitable! I think yesterday´s visit gave me the courage to start visiting more houses. Hopefully I can do that the rest of this week.

Love,
Jennifer